honkeydonkey

My 02 civic EX had 214k on it on the original clutch. I knew it would go out at some point, so this past week I had time off school to go ahead and replace the clutch and do some other work. I scoured this site among others to figure out the best way to do it, tools I needed, torque specs, etc. As someone who has never done this before, I was a bit nervous as this was the biggest job I have ever taken on. I wanted to share some important bits for people who are going to attempt to do a clutch or just want to know how I did it. This isn't mean to be a DIY necessarily, I just want to highlight the steps that I found to be difficult or hard to find info for online.

- First things first, make sure you have the right tools before the job. 17mm wrench, socket, deep sockets are all pretty important. I also had to buy an impact axle nut socket as well. Make sure to also have a torque wrench. And a breaker bar if you don't have air tools.

- air tools are your friend. I'll admit I am a Harbor Freight fan. 90% of my tools are from them, including all air tools and compressor. I must say: it all worked really well for this project. The impact gun had zero problem taking off any fasteners and their 300 piece tool set came in super handy.

- I opted for taking the transmission out through the top, because the subframe seemed like a PITA to remove.

-I had a few issues along the way that really slowed me down:
Brake rotor screws were stripped and rusted. Had to buy an air impact hammer and hammer them out. Time spent: 3 hours

Ball joints: I couldn't decide whether or not to take ball joints out or undo strut to knuckle bolts. I ended up taking out one ball joint with a ball joint tool on my new air hammer, but eventually ended up just taking strut bolts off instead and putting ball joint back on. I recommend doing strut bolts instead of the ball joints. Time spent: 2 hours

-Now for CV's, they weren't' too tricky, this is where a pry bar is your friend. Helped a bunch to get them out of the transmission. Just be careful not to damage axle seal. If I remember right I took them out of the knuckle first then popped them out of transmission.

I should mention for all the fasteners and steps I took I wrote them all down in a word document and put every nut and bolt together and labeled them with numbers. This helped tremendously when it came to putting everything back together. I highly recommend taking the extra time when you remove stuff to take notes on it. Pictures help too.

-Now for coolant passage: pretty straightforward removal, water pipe was a bit tricky - it comes out of the engine and stays in the thermostat housing. At first I thought it came out by itself but it doesn't.

-Starter is pretty simple, bolt on the bottom is just a little tricky to find at first.

-shift linkage is also pretty straightforward. Note the positions of the washers when they come off. White one goes on the bottom if I remember correctly. Don't lose the tiny cotter pins either. Remove those plus the shift bracket and just kinda bend them out of the way.

- Now for trans mounts: I put my scissor jack that comes with the car and a piece of wood under the oil pan. I recommend doing a jack instead of a jack stand because its important to be able to slightly lift and lower engine to get everything to sit back in right. I used my main floor jack for the transmission. I removed top mount first, then the one in front next to radiator, then the two that connect to the oil pan, then the black one behind the engine and tranny.

- bell housing bolts are simple, but at this point I had a jack under the transmission for when it came off.

Now is about the time that this project became a headache.



Transmission slips off engine no problem, but yes, you do need to remove pressure plate and clutch disc to get it out of the engine bay. That's not the hard part. The hard part is getting tranny out of the car. Now the reason I did this was to replace the Input Shaft Bearing, or else I would've left it in the engine bay.

You probably need two people and a lot patience to get the transmission out. We ended up taking off every bracket off the top that stuff hooks to and then angled it down and ****ed with it until it eventually came out.

I then took it to the dealer to get the ISB replaced. I thought I would be too in over my head taking my transmission apart.

Now it was time to put transmission back into car....

Getting it back into the engine bay is the same as taking it out. Takes a bit of wiggling and different angles until it will sit on the jack and the subframe. I was super nervous about damaging my new flywheel, so I threw an old bath towel over it just to make sure we didn't hit it with transmission when we were messing with it. Now you can bolt clutch and pressure plate up. I also opted for a new flywheel, I didn't feel like risking a bad resurfacing job causing clutch chatter.

Remember the pry bar that I used for the CV's? This comes in very handy for stopping the engine from turning by sticking into the flywheel teeth while installing clutch/pressure plate. Another trick I learned is to get a 19mm socket with an extension and a breaker bar - go onto crank pulley and let the breaker bar rest on the brake rotor. It will stop engine from turning while you tighten stuff.


Now came the hardest part of the job. Getting transmission back onto engine. I read about this a lot and people just said you have to wiggle it back and forth and probably use two people. This probably took us 4 hours. After lubing input shaft, dowel pins on engine and tranny, and ****ing with it forever, we finally got it mated up. I was on my back under the transmission supporting it while two other people were up top guiding it into place. That part absolutely sucked, and for a while I wasn't sure I would be able to do it myself.

After that the rest wasn't too difficult. Mounts went back on, this is where the jack under the engine came in handy as I could slightly adjust everything to make everything line up. Mount on the top I think I bolted it to the frame first and then bolted it up to the transmission.

When you reinstall CV's they should have an audible clunk when they seat into the transmission. If not, they probably aren't in there all the way. Put them in the transmission first then get them into the steering knuckles.

I then filled transmission with fluid through the reverse sensor, super easy since filing it from the fill hole can be kinda difficult cause you need a hose and stuff. After I made sure it wasn't leaking you can button up the front suspension. Make sure you torque everything here properly, especially strut to knuckle bolts.

Putting coolant passage back on wasn't bad, make sure to put water pipe slightly into the engine and then bolt the whole passage back on, then you can wiggle water pipe deeper into its position and put the hose clamp back over it. Make sure the black gasket is between the engine and water passage.

I should mention the starter is easier to do before doing the coolant passage.

I installed the clutch slave cylinder, which I've always found a bit tricky. The rubber boot makes everything kinda hard. What I did was put the rod and its rubber sleeve onto the slave cylinder itself, and held it in place. I had the main rubber boot that covers shift fork already installed. I then just tried to put the rod into the hole it sits into on the shift fork while holding everything together and getting one bolt onto the slave cylinder. Took a couple tries.

I opted to leave the resonator off until I did a test drive and checked everything out. I hooked everything else up. Being the **** person that I am, before starting I pulled fuel pump fuse and just cranked engine to make sure nothing sounded out of the ordinary. I then started it, and bled cooling system.

For my first test drive, I drove it about 20 miles in the city and freeway. Clutch pedal was a bit softer than before, and it had a vibration and engagement point when shifting and starting in first. This has gone away mostly after about 900 miles on the clutch. It has firmed up and vibrations have gone away.


This job took me about 4 days, and at least 30 hours. Keep in mind I got slowed down by some stubborn ball joints and rotor screws and was working alone. I also did some other work at the same time, including: brakes, oil change, o2 sensors, fluids, bleeding cooling system, air filters.

I guess I can now say that I have changed a clutch. And after all that work, I really don't want to do it again. I found it to be a PITA overall. I now understand why mechanics have high labor fees at times. Gave me a lot of respect for the pros who do this all the time.


So for anyone thinking about doing it themselves, that's how it went for me. A good learning experience, but something I probably wouldn't do again. Saved about $1000 though. Really the only reason I did it in the first place.

Thanks for reading.

Colin42

I managed to do mine in one day, but that was an 11 hour day with no breaks. So I know the feeling. Did you use the clutch alignment tool tool that came with the clutch kit? I found rotating the input shaft back and forth helped me, some people will rotate the crank.
Was your front engine mount broken?

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

thanks!

It's so rare nowadays to have people posting actual DIY or helpful tips

ezone

Now you know why it's worth what we charge in a shop....and if all goes as planned we would have it all done in one day and you would be back on the road burning fuel by 5PM.

GusBuz

Not all heroes wear capes....

Wakko

What does a shop usually charge for it? My local A/H dealer recommends OEM only...is this a good idea?

ezone

Call several local shops and ask them.

IMO yes, but there are aftermarket parts of equal quality available too.

The dealership is almost always going to push dealer parts-- for reasons that should be obvious.

I personally like dealer parts (for stock unmodified cars) because OE quality is expected and is consistent, no bad surprises.
I don't have to try to research a dozen different other choices and hope one I pick is good enough.

Colin42

if you want to use oem go ahead, i used an excedy kit and had no problems and everything worked well